


Galra Ears

by Callaeidae3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [16]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 15:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19405903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: BTHB: FlashbacksA diplomatic mission goes downhill when Keith doesn't tie his hair back as per the alien planet's cultural customs. The Queen takes offense to this demonstration of disrespect, but Keith's simply trying to protect himself from things he doesn't wish to think about.





	Galra Ears

**Author's Note:**

> Set early Season 3. Prompt requested by @traditionalartist
> 
> Context/Background info for this fic:
> 
> This is an AU in which when Keith hit puberty, there were also Galra genetics influenced changes to his body happening. One such obvious change was that his ears started becoming pointed like Krolia's. At first the change was subtle and he could hide his ears with his hair, but over time the points grew and began to poke through his hair. Upset about it and fearing he might be taken away if people actually thought he was an alien, Keith took his knife and cut off the tips of his ears. He was able to hide the band-aids/bandages on his ears beneath his hair.
> 
> Hunk and Lance were in his class, so they know about the bullying, and Hunk knows about what it compelled Keith to do.

Allura had warned them – _informed_ them, rather – that the people of this planet have a specific custom of respect which involves showing one’s ears. To cover them or hide them with hair or clothing is considered ill-mannered here, as in these people’s eyes it’s essentially saying, ‘I wish not to listen to you.’

It meant there were things that had to be done before they left the Castle. Things such as pinning hair back for Pidge and Allura, slicking hair back for Hunk and as for Keith…

He should’ve warned himself. He’d thought, as they’d flown their Lions down to the planet surface, that all the preparation they’d had to was a waste of time; they’d be keeping their helmets on anyway, right? Keith wouldn’t have to show what he was admittedly ashamed about then, right?

It should’ve occurred to him earlier how, on this planet, leaving his hair as is could be considered offensive.

With guns trained on all of them, even Coran despite him not being one of the five Voltron paladins, Keith realises now what a mistake he’s made.

“How dare you show us such disrespect?” says the planet’s Queen cooly. “You think you are entitled to look down upon us simply because you deem yourselves defenders of this universe? Why, in this moment I find it difficult to consider you apart from the Emperor Zarkon.”

Keith grips his helmet tighter in his hands. “I-I mean no offense.”

“You display offense and yet you say you mean none? I am not so foolish as to be tricked by words when my eyes see otherwise.”

“In our culture, back on my home planet, we – ”

“This is not your home planet. Open your eyes, Leader of Voltron. Can you not see? Or is it merely that you wish not to see, in the same way you are showing us that you do not wish to hear us?”

Allura steps forward, her helmet tucked beneath her arm. Her shoulders are tensed, her expression stressed and mildly frustrated – frustrated at Keith, Keith realises as she looks at him with sharp disappointment written all over her face. Maybe he’d be able to take it better if her face weren’t so exposed, if she hadn’t brushed her hair back in a tight braid that leaves no room for hair to slip loose over her ears.

“Queen,” she says levelly. “May I have a word?”

The Queen frowns deeply. “Words shall not be exchanged here unless your leader decides to respect those hearing them.”

 _They’re going to make me tie my hair back,_ Keith realises. He doesn’t notice how his hands shake because of how tightly his fingers are curled around the base of his helmet. _Unless I do, there won’t be any chance of alliance from these people. If Shiro had longer hair like me, he wouldn’t have hesitated to do it._ His chest burns. _If Shiro were here, he probably could’ve convinced me to anyway. He would’ve avoided this mess to begin with._

“Keith.”

He swallows and tries to keep his face straight as he meets Allura’s eyes. “Yes, Princess?”

“We discussed this. Hunk listened. Pidge listened. I did my hair back too. Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know.” A lame, default excuse that isn’t true. Of course he knows.

“You do, and you need to snap out of your stubbornness long enough to realise that the polite and respectful thing to do in this situation is to show you are listening.”

“I am listening.”

“You are not. If you were, you would have put your hair back.” A muscle in Allura’s cheek twitches. “Dare I say, though right now your having your hair down is a sign of cultural disrespect to the people here, it shows me exactly what that cultural custom says it does: that you are not listening to me.”

The Red Paladin’s helmet slips from Keith’s fingers. The sound it makes would’ve been more deafening had it been the Black Paladin’s. He bows his head. _There’s a reason,_ he wants to scream. _There’s a reason why I can’t do what you want, but you won’t_ listen _long enough for me to even try to explain!_

The accusations don’t stop there. The Queen gasps. “And now you dare shield your eyes from us? Are we not considered worthy enough for you to look upon? I never knew the Leader of Voltron was this _rude!_ ”

“Alright, alright!” Hunk says, marching up to Keith’s side. “Enough with the misunderstandings.”

Allura’s face is grim. “There are no misunderstandings. I briefed you all on the cultural practises here before we left.”

“Yes, Allura. You did. But I don’t believe the same can be said for Her Majesty here, am I right?”

The Queen blinks. Unable to stomach anymore of her expressions, Keith fixes his eyes on the purple-tinted grass beneath his boots and crosses his arms over his torso. He should really pick up his helmet. His arms, with his fingers now digging into the material of his flight suit, decide it can wait.

A hand lands on his shoulder and he flinches violently. Hunk murmurs a hasty and concerned apology. The Queen’s silence is an invitation for Hunk to elaborate on his point, so he does.

“The planet we come from,” Hunk explains, “has a lot of different people of different languages and culture. We don’t all get along. We fight, we hurt each other, we misunderstand each other, but at the end of the day we’re all human and that’s what allows us to understand each other, at least in some way. We don’t always agree or accept other people’s cultures, so we have to learn to be respectful of that if we’re to get along.

“But it’s not a one way street, you know what I mean? So while it’s all good for us to come here wearing our hair in a way that respects your customs, please understand that it’s not a custom we have back on Earth. And Keith here…he’s not doing it to be rude, okay? It’s just something he’s uncomfortable with. Really uncomfortable with. He has his reasons, so please try not to be too harsh on him.”

Keith’s eyes and throat burns with the tears he’s trying to hold back. He’s shaking, and he knows it’s obvious, but how pathetic this behaviour must seem when he hasn’t even yet explained _that reason._ He should. He owes the Queen an explanation, at least.

Another presence by his side. “Is this about what I think it’s about?” Lance asks softly.

_I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to think about it._

“Yeah,” Hunk murmurs.

Keith can’t fight it anymore. The flashbacks come, images and emotions flooding his mind and body. Images of obsessively checking his reflection in bathroom mirrors and classroom window, of using his reflection in his tablet screen to make sure his hair was sitting right. Emotions of adolescence, and of steadily growing nauseating horror when he found he couldn’t hide the tips of ears beneath his hair anymore.

 _Galra gene,_ he understands now. That had been the reason for the tips of his ears lengthening and narrowing into points. That had been the reason for the rumours that had started spreading around the Garrison cadets in his class, that Keith wasn’t human and that’s why no one wanted him – that he wasn’t alien enough either, or that maybe he was _too_ alien, and that’s why his parents abandoned him. Thankfully that had happened at the end of the school term, and by the time the summer break was over the rumour had been all but forgotten in the wake of new and exciting stories of summer to tell.

It was a relief not to have to face that again, but now he had to listen to these stories of fun times spent with friends and family while Keith’s summer had been filled with fear, throbbing pain and bloody bandages.

As all this is going through his mind, he’s vaguely aware of concerned voices around him. It’s Allura, realising she might’ve taken the reprimanding a little too far. It’s Lance, quietly telling Pidge the brief but obviously damaging couple of weeks of bullying Keith had gone through at the Garrison. It’s Hunk, guiding him away from where the Queen stands still staring at him in astonishment, guiding him back in the direction of the Castle.

No one shoots them as they leave. No one calls them back.

When Keith’s vision clears enough to see without having images from a few years ago superimposed in his mind, they’ve arrived at the paladin lounge. Hunk helps him sit down and runs off with a ramble about where he’s going that Keith doesn’t quite catch. Left alone, Keith finally allows a bit of the pressure building behind his eyes to break.

 _Good job, Keith,_ he thinks bitterly to himself. _Way to ruin a diplomatic mission. Such a great leader you’re turning out to be, letting something personal that you should have gotten over already get in the way of the mission._

It’s his fault if this alliance is officially screwed. And all because of what? He didn’t want anyone seeing the scars on the tops of his ears? He doesn’t want people to know how his ears aren’t naturally rounded like they appear to be at first sight?

_What would it matter now anyway, if I hadn’t hacked off the tops of my ears when I was younger? People keep finding out I’m not all human. The Garrison will find out I am somewhat alien when we get back to Earth. What better way to break it to them slowly, them finding out I’m half-Galra, by them clearly being able to see it by the points of his ears?_

The doors to the paladin lounge slide open. Footsteps approach. Keith sniffs and lowers his head to try hide the fact he’s crying. The action doesn’t hide the quivering of his jaw, however, and Hunk can tell straight away.

“Here,” Hunk murmurs. “Got you some water.”

Keith’s not sure if he trusts his hands not to drop the cup, but he accepts it anyway. They shake as he raises the cup to his lips and downs the whole cup of water, and they shake even when he lowers it down to rest on his lap.

“How’re you doing?”

Keith hunches his shoulders. He doesn’t answer.

“It’s okay, man,” Hunk says. “I know how much that gossip back at the Garrison upset you. Well, maybe I don’t know the full extent, but yeah. Remember that time you were checking the bandages in the bathroom?”

Still nonverbal, Keith can only flash him an acknowledging grimace.

“Yeah, you were changing the band-aids you had on your ears and there was blood all over them because you’d been out hoverbike riding with Shiro and you helmet had rubbed against your ears or something. Anyway, I saw the blood and I saw you pressing paper towels to your ears and I _freaked._ You freaked, too, aha.”

Keith hums.

“Remember how you were scared they’d lock you up somewhere, and you begged me not tell anyone in case they thought the rumours were true and decided to do research on you? And when you got expelled from the Garrison, how you ran and lived way out in the desert so no one could find you? I mean, no we know that, uh…you didn’t actually have anywhere else to go but…

“I guess what I’m saying is, don’t feel bad for finding that all that stuff still upsets you, man. That Queen might not understand it, but I get why you’d feel so exposed revealing your ears – your, uh, scars – to everyone. It’s an upsetting topic, and a personal one that you don’t want to think about, and the last thing you want is people asking questions and prying and the whole half-Galra racial tensions thing stressing you out all over again.”

The doors open again and Keith stiffens. It’s too late to suppress the sounds of crying. He hates how vulnerable he is here, but thankfully no one comments on it.

“Lance and Coran are coming back now,” Pidge says. “Allura’s still talking with the Queen. Oh, and Keith? Lance is bringing back your helmet for you.”

 _“Thanks,”_ Keith tries to say, but the word he mouths doesn’t receive vocalisation.

Something small and metal hits the floor, followed by another and another. There’s a few more before Pidge lets out a huff, gathers the metal things and joins Hunk and Keith sitting in the lounge. She dumps the numerous Altean bobby pins on the seat next to her.

After a moment of silence, she turns to Keith. “You want a hug?”

The tone she says it in leaves him confused and stuck between secretly wanting to say yes and the strong urge to say no lest he be considered weak, or a nuisance, or…

“You know what, I’m just going to give you one. Tell me to let go if you don’t want one.”

It’s then Keith realises that the others have realised he’s not as impassive and distant and temperamental as he seems to come across as to a lot of people. In the wake of Shiro’s mysterious disappearance and all of Keith’s desperate searches to find him again, they’ve come to realise that Keith’s heart is in fact fragile. That he’s lonely to the core and exhausted by it.

At least, that’s what he’s able to believe – really wants to believe – right here, right now. Maybe they’ll reconsider, or they’re concern will fade and eventually they’ll all end up abandoning him like everyone else, but…

For a few moments at least, sitting on the couch in the paladin lounge encased in a hug given by Pidge and Hunk, it’s nice to think he’s not alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Additional background scene idea:
> 
> Shiro knew about what Keith had done - he found out the same day Hunk did, just a little earlier. They'd been out riding their hoverbikes through the desert and had stopped to take a break, during which Shiro noticed a smear of blood visible by Keith's temple. Shiro grew concerned when Keith refused to take his helmet off but eventually Keith relented. He told Shiro what he'd done and why he did it. Since he'd trusted Shiro enough to tell him all this, Shiro decided that he'd only tell someone if that someone was a Garrison nurse and Keith's taking proper care of his wounds wasn't sufficient. (Shiro was also concerned about extraterrestrial interested researchers at the Garrison might become curious about Keith if they discovered Keith's problem with his ears).


End file.
